No Good Nick (Part 3)

Part 14

"Stupid!"

Nick threw a punch.

"Stupid. Idiot! You. Stupid. Coward. You. Stupid-"

Each punch she threw was accented by a word. She ignored the pain in her hands and kept punching. She was aware that tears were streaming down her face but she hardly cared at this point.

"ARGGHH!" She screamed louder now and began kicking and throwing punches.

She heard someone running up the stairs but ignored it. The door opened.

"Nick! What... what's going on!?" she heard Liz's panicked voice and thudding feet running towards her. She turned away and ran past Liz. She could hear herself yelling the repeated, "stupid, idiot, coward" phrase but she felt as though she was disconnected from herself. She finally came to the end of the room and sank down against the wall. She curled in on herself, sobbing into her knees.

She could hear Liz's soothing voice and feel her hugging her. Nick sobbed into Liz's shoulder. She became aware that Ed was there too, holding her hand. He softly squeezed her hand in reassurance.

"W-what's going on?" That was Molly's voice. Nick glanced up to see Molly eyeing the stack of pillows Nick had been beating up in her anger.

Molly walked over to Nick, kneeling in front of her.

"I know you wouldn't go on a punching spree to some poor pillows if everything was fine Nick," she whispered.

Nick looked back down again, hiding her face from everyone. She was pretty sure she heard Jeremey come into the room, but she didn't want to look up.

Ever since her whole break down a couple of nights ago, everyone was making sure Nick was okay. She loved them for it, but at the same time, they had no idea how she felt.... and she didn't know how to tell them.

But she wanted to.

If there was anything the Thompson's had given her, it was love and support. They showed her they would always be there for her, something she'd never had until then. So she really wanted to tell them... she wanted the help and relief.

So she sighed and spat out the 3 words that had been haunting her all week.

"It's my fault..."

Everyone in the room froze at those 3 small words while Nick continued to cry and curl in on herself.

"Nick? Sweetie? Nothing is your fault here. It's okay to be upset over everything..." Liz had started to say but Nick cut her off.

"No. It's my fault. He-" her breath hitched. "He... I forgot about... I forgot..." she tried speaking again before shaking her head.

"Nick? Who are you talking about?" Ed asked slowly, calmly.

"My dad!" She suddenly exploded, all of the fear, anger, and guilt she had suppressed coming through.
"He needs the money! And I... I forgot all about it this past month... because I was so focused on.... on me and my dad... he needs it... how could I forget?!" She ran her hands through her messy hair, thinking about her dad in prison.

She heard Liz and Ed whisper something but couldn't make out the words. Then,

"Okay, this sounds something you wanna talk about, right?" Liz asked.

Nick looked up and nodded slowly.

"Alright, how about we go downstairs... you get cleaned up... and I'll make some tea and we can talk about what's going on?"

Nick gave a small sigh and nodded.

With shaking hands, she lifted herself up.

***Will's little POV continued***